Forget All That Stuff About Dirty, Dancing Is Downright Dangerous

Footloose

A dance scene from "Footloose," with Julianne Hough, center, and Kenny Wormald, second from center.Credit
K.C. Bailey/Paramount Pictures

Nobody can stop the youth of America from dancing, and nobody can stop the American film industry from making movies about people who try. The most impressive thing about Craig Brewer’s remake of “Footloose” — the 1984 Kevin Bacon movie with the Kenny Loggins theme song that will now be stuck in my cranium for another 27 years — is that it handles its shaky, shopworn premise with sensitivity and conviction.

The elders of the little town of Bomont, Ga., have banned dancing (and loud music and a lot of other fun) not out of prudery, but as a result of misguided but understandable parental concern. After a wild night drinking beer and shaking their blue-jeaned tailfeathers to Blake Shelton’s new version of the theme song, a group of local teenagers were killed in a road accident. Among them was the only son of the Rev. Shaw Moore (Dennis Quaid), who also has a daughter named Ariel (Julianne Hough).

Three years later, Ariel is a high school senior running wild with a local racecar driver (Patrick John Flueger), and the town’s young people are sitting still and being quiet under the watchful eyes of the authorities, occasionally sneaking out for some clandestine toe tapping. Into this scene comes Ren (Kenny Wormald), who moves from the notoriously dance-crazy city of Boston to live with his uncle and aunt.

If you remember the first “Footloose,” you know more or less what happens, and you may find some of the alterations amusing. Instead of a game of chicken on tractors, for instance, there is a dirt-track race involving modified school buses. Mr. Brewer films this lumbering action sequence, and several brawls and fights, with more verve and relish than he brings to the dance numbers, which are, in the age of “Glee,” the “High School Musical” movies and the mighty “Step Up” franchise, woefully inadequate.

Photo

Kenny Wormald in "Footloose."Credit
K.C. Bailey/Paramount Pictures

As is Mr. Wormald. He has energy but no real magnetism, and while he may be in possession of what are technically known as “moves,” his dancing lacks sensuality and a sense of release. Much better is Miles Teller, as Willard, Ren’s drawling sidekick — Mater to his Lightning McQueen, if you’ll permit a “Cars” reference. With his scarecrow limbs and slack features, Mr. Teller has a natural charisma that is both comic and kind of sexy.

“Footloose” could use more of that, but Mr. Brewer’s expertise — as shown in his previous films, “Hustle & Flow” and “Black Snake Moan” — lies in pulpy vulgarity and florid melodrama. These elements certainly have a place in this movie, as does the director’s evident affection for the music and idioms of the South. Apart from the inevitable ’80s-throwback and popped-up hip-hop tracks, the music in this “Footloose” is better and more eclectic than the original, with some blues, country and vintage metal mixed in with the peppy dance tunes.

But to be effective, a pop confection like this needs just the right mix of silliness and sincerity, so that you believe both that a lot is at stake in the battle over dancing and that, in the end, it’s really just dancing. Somehow “Footloose” never finds its rhythm. The maudlin scenes drag on, and the livelier moments pass by too quickly. It only works when it settles down and lets the characters (and the audience) hang out and have a little fun. Which is all kids really want to do. Why does everyone make it so difficult?

Directed by Craig Brewer; written by Mr. Brewer and Dean Pitchford, based on the original screenplay by Mr. Pitchford; director of photography, Amelia Vincent; edited by Billy Fox; music by Deborah Lurie; production design by Jon Gary Steele; costumes by Laura Jean Shannon; choreography by Jamal Sims; produced by Craig Zadan, Neil Meron, Dylan Sellers and Brad Weston; released by Paramount Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 53 minutes.

A version of this review appears in print on October 14, 2011, on page C13 of the New York edition with the headline: Forget All That Stuff About Dirty, Dancing Is Downright Dangerous. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe